from Jeremy Rutherford of the Morning Skate at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,

After many hours and lot of manpower, the ice surface at the Globe Arena is ready for Friday and Saturday’s game between the Blues and Red Wings….

The one difference is the height of the glass on the side boards. They are roughly two feet shorter than the regular glass at Scottrade Center. That could come into play if a team is penalized for shooting the puck over the glass in the defensive zone, which requires a delay-of-game penalty.

He’s just a kid to some, but Stastny is the Avs’ highest-paid player and the one the Avs will most rely on in the 2009-10 season, which starts Thursday. That’s OK. Stastny is used to growing up fast.

“It comes with the territory. I know what’s expected of me here, but I expect as much or more from myself,” he said. “We’ve got a younger team now, and I know I need to be an example to some of the younger guys. But I’m excited about it. I got to learn from some great players before me, so I hope to do some of the same things to other guys.”

Stastny will start the first year of a five-year, $33 million contract this season. He is eager to prove he’s worth the money and to make people forget about last season. Injuries limited him to 45 games, and he had the worst point production (11 goals, 36 points) of his three-year career.

“I think everyone wants to kind of throw away last year, but at the same time remember how bad it was and use it as a reminder we don’t want it to be that way again,” he said. “I learned a lot last year, even though I didn’t play much.”

Jordin Tootoo has been a fan favorite since he made his debut with the Predators during the 2003-04 season.

But if he is to remain with Nashville, he will need to seriously step up his game, the team’s decision-makers said….

“I just want to see some improvement,” Coach Barry Trotz said. “He took a step back last year in terms of his overall play. I know he can step forward again. I was hoping last year he would take another step forward because the year before he took a step forward.”

Tootoo poses an interesting challenge for Trotz and General Manager David Poile. This is a contract year for Tootoo, who is scheduled to make $975,000 this season. It is a steep price for someone who plays on the third or fourth lines and doesn’t produce many points

In the short term, we can expect to see plenty of him via a book tour, a jersey retirement and likely associations with the Flames organization and a local recovery facility.

What follows should be an emotional ceremony in Toronto, where he can thank everyone from his wife/saviour Jennifer and his Cup-winning teammates of ‘89 to current and past Flames management types, including Al MacNeil, who threw his pen at the draft table and cursed the decision to draft “a frickin’ jockey” 166th overall in ‘87.

Hall-of-Fame president Jeff Denomme confirmed yesterday Fleury was eligible for induction last year by virtue of the fact it had been three years since he last played pro in Belfast.

Voters who lost track of Fleury while he spent years in New Mexico drinking and golfing can’t be faulted for overlooking the Little Big Man whose battles in life also included bouts with Crohn’s disease.

It’s time he be re-introduced to the discussion as his numbers and accomplishments dwarf those of several previous inductees.

He just doesn’t fit in D.C. in Bruce Boudreau’s system, and he’s terribly expensive at a transitional time in his career (nearing the end). Initially his production slipped precipitously as he struggled to try and fit in Gabby’s get-up-and-go gallop, but more recently he’s been unable even to crack the lineup. And so he’s doubly or triply tough to move—he has a no movement clause in his contract as a bit of an exclamation point in this impasse.

If Michael Nylander held out any hope of contributing to the Caps this season, Capitals’ management threw seriously cold water on it with the acquisition of Brendan Morrison over the summer, and that just days after suggesting that Brooks Laich would be seriously auditioned at center on the Capitals’ second line. Then Bruce Boudreau quashed the notion of Nyls contributing altogether this preseason. Figuratively and literally Michael Nylander has been divorced from the competitive portion of training camp, failing to dress for a single preseason game. I can’t ever recall such isolation of an individual player in a Capitals’ preseason before.

“There is an expectation on my part and I think in the community at large that we share the same goal. My ambition is to win a Stanley Cup. I think we’ve got the personalities in place from management, coaching and players, so I look for a great season.

The Panthers are at the deadline to sign rookie defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, and if they don’t, the 18-year-old would have to be returned to his junior team in Quebec on Tuesday. Kulikov is negotiating a buyout of his contract with the Russian professional league. Until that happens, he cannot sign with the Panthers.

``I don’t really have an update, but we have until [Tuesday] to get him released and signed, and we are working on it,’’ acting general manager Randy Sexton said. ``There is a little time zone difference. His agents are in New York and the Russians are in Moscow. So it takes a little time to work through.’‘

The Panthers want to sign Kulikov and see him try to take the seventh spot on defense. This year’s first-round pick has looked like he belongs in the NHL—at least through his first five exhibition games.

Thus it is established that the best Swede in NHL named Henrik Zetterberg.

For so many crushing, of a total of 161, said that of “Zäta” on the question of which of our transatlantic stars being the highest class.

- Thank you for the award. But I myself would have put my voice on “Lidas,” (Lidstrom) says 28-year-old Medelpad no when Sportbladet talk to him before the Sweden-visit and a season in which he wants revenge.

No, Henrik Zetterberg did not sneeze at all about that 102 colleagues at home in the premier league voted for him in Sportbladet survey of the best NHL Swedes - and the nearest competitors and Nicklas Lidström Nicklas Bäckström did not come up in more than 17 votes each.

On the contrary.

- It will always be glad of such awards. Especially when other hockey players voted. It weighs a bit heavier than when journalists speak out.

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